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Category Archives: New York

I’m almost halfway through with blog posts about the 75* people featured in the Friends Album. I felt I needed to do two things to better wrap my head around these folks, where they’re from and how they are connected.

Firstly, I created yet another map in Google Maps, showing the locations for each of the friends featured so far (previously, I created a map showing the locations of the photographers I’ve found in Danbury, Connecticut). The photos were taken in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. A large number were taken in Danbury, Connecticut. Yonkers, New York, and New Milford, Connecticut, also were the sites of several photos each.

Friends Album Photo Location Google Map (links to Google Map)

It’s good to see the geographic dispersal of these photos, but I wanted a way to more intricately compare the data I’ve compiled from each image. I next created a Google spreadsheet that shows (where known) the names, locations, approximate dates, ages, photo types and assorted notes, along with thumbnail images for each photo.

Friends Album Google Doc Spreadsheet (links to spreadsheet)

I still have to go through and try all of the different sorts and filters available to me now that I’ve populated this with data. I’m trying to figure out if I can link the thumbnail images to their larger versions on the web. I’ll continue to update the spreadsheet as I investigate each photo. The link provided here will automatically update with my changes. I invite folks to check out both of these tools and let me know if you notice any patterns that I might be missing.

* Originally, I counted 75 people in the album, but now have found a couple of people with more than one photo included. As of now, the number of distinct individuals is probably closer to 70.

Once again, I think the above imprint is rather hard to decipher, but luckily, the other side of the photo clears things up:

So, we’re in an entirely new locale this time — Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Poughkeepsie is in the county of Dutchess.

I found photographer Charles H. Gallup at the addresses listed on the imprint in city directories in 1886 to 1897. A good, long time.

Do you think the image on the back accurately represents what his studio location looked like? If so, it has changed over the years:

Google Street View image of 292-296 Main Street in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

There is one other clue in Photo No. 26. There appears to be a pin on the child’s bib. Here is a close-up crop:

Can you make out what this pin says?

It’s a little hard to read. I think it either says “Cary” or “Amy.” I may try to re-scan the image or look at it with a magnifying glass, to see if I can clear it up.

UPDATE: My eagle-eyed Facebook friends have all but solved this. The pin most likely says “BABY.” I was so hoping that it would be a name that I hadn’t even considered this!

Here’s Photo No. 27:

Friend No. 27

This photo was taken back in Danbury, Connecticut, at Edward A. Osborne’s studio. It makes me wonder why this photo is separated from the other photos taken at that studio. Photo No. 27 appears to me to be older than the photo of the baby in No. 26. Are these two subjects related, perhaps? I think I might start a spreadsheet compiling all of the data we’re able to derive from each photo, to hopefully help show patterns and make connections that may otherwise be missed in this photo-by-photo run-through of the album.

I have acquired an old photo album containing many pictures from the late 1800s. I’m going through the album to catalog the photos with as much information as can be gleaned from them. My hope is to return the album and photos to the descendants of those pictured. Read about the first photos in the album here. **Click on the images below for larger versions**

Whoa, baby! Here’s Photo No. 13:

Friend No. 13

No photographer’s imprint to help us assign a location to this photo. There is an inscription on the back:

Reverse side of Friend No. 13's photo

The handwriting here is different than the notes left on other photos.

Here is Photo No. 14:

Friend No. 14

Yay! We have an imprint. We’re back in Yonkers, N.Y. Here is the reverse side of the photo:

Reverse side of Friend No. 14's photo

I found photographer Charles H. Frazier in local directories in the following years:

Interestingly, the only census in which I think I’ve found him is in the 1900 U.S. Census living in Morristown, New Jersey, which is about an hour away from Yonkers in today’s driving time. Hmmm…

Back to the photo itself. I thought it was cute that this baby seemed to be pointing to something off-camera. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that she (I’m assuming) is wearing a ring on her ring finger of her left hand!:

Note the ring on the ring finger on the left hand.

On another note, I’m wondering if these two babies may be siblings. They look an awful lot alike to me…

I have acquired an old photo album containing many pictures from the late 1800s. I’m going through the album to catalog the photos with as much information as can be gleaned from them. My hope is to return the album and photos to the descendants of those pictured. Read about the first photos in the album here. **Click on the images below for larger versions**

The next page of the Friends Album features two photos by two different photographers in Yonkers, New York. Here is the first:

Friend No. 3

Is it me, or is the child above standing on one foot? I believe she is a girl, despite the cropped hair, because of the bustle on the dress — I’ve seen boys from this era in dresses before, but not with bustles. Below is the reverse side of the photo.

Reverse side of Friend No. 3's photo

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of info to help identify the child pictured. My interpretation of the handwriting in pencil is “16 x 20 Burt Reed.” Perhaps that was the person who commissioned the photo? This time, however, I had more luck finding the photographer. Here he is in the 1880 U.S. Census (via Ancestry):

Photographer Byron Barker in the 1880 U.S. Census (Ancestry)

Byron Barker also can be found in a Yonkers city directory in 1886-87 (though at a different address than listed in the photographer’s imprint on the photo above):

1886-87 Yonkers city directory listing (Ancestry.com)

He does appear at the address in the photographer’s imprint in an 1892 directory, also found on Ancestry. Bingo! That helps to date the photo (at least to post-1887). I’m unable to find other evidence of this photographer past 1892.

Here’s the next photo in the album:

Friend No. 4

And the reverse side of the above photo:

Once again, the 1880 U.S. Census shows us more about this photographer:

Paul Lisbona also is listed as a photographer in Yonkers in the 1910 census. In 1870, according to the US Census on FamilySearch.org, a Pablo Lisbona is in school in Columbia, New York. I’m relatively sure he’s our guy because his birthplace and year match what I saw in the census records.

By the way, if you plug in the street addresses for the Barker studio, as advertised in the imprint of the first photo, and the Lisbona studio address in the second photo into Google Maps, you’ll see they were only 43 feet apart.

Yonkers is in Westchester County, New York. I’m once again noting that fact in case other photos from the album are from the vicinity.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have acquired an old photo album containing many pictures from the late 1800s. I’m going through the album to catalog the photos with as much information as can be gleaned from them. My hope is to return the album and photos to the descendants of those pictured.

A little background on the album: the owner of the store where I purchased the album was able to tell me the name of the family to which the album belonged and that they hailed from St. Michaels, Maryland. The majority of the pictures in the album appear to have been taken in Connecticut and New York, however. The front of the album indicates that it contains friends of the family who owned the album (so not necessarily their own relatives). Many of the photos in the album are labeled and several of the subjects share the same surname. I hope this means that the subjects in the album are related and that I might be able to return the album to their descendants.

The photo is not labeled with the name of the individual pictured. In fact, there’s nothing on the back at all. All that is known is the name and address of the photographer: Osborne at 197 Main Street in Danbury, Connecticut. Given what I know of photos, I would date this somewhere between 1880 and 1900, leaning toward the earlier end of that range.

Photo #2 is the same type of photo and was taken by the same photographer. It also is unlabeled:

Friend No. 2

Assuming that these two photos are taken at the same time and that these are relatives, I have a theory. He is wearing a white bow tie, though his jacket is pretty plain. She is wearing quite an elaborate dress. I wonder if these are wedding portraits.

Danbury Main Street, 1907 (Wikipedia)

Danbury is in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I’m making a note of this in case I find that others in the album are from the same area. Wikipedia happens to have a 1907 postcard view of Danbury’s Main Street.

In the middle of the photographer’s imprint at the bottom of the card are the initials E, A and O. I was able to tell from other photos in the album that the photographer was E. A. Osborne.

I have not yet had luck finding the photographer in various online resources. In searches on Ancestry, I found an E. Arthur Osborne living in Danbury in 1900 in the census, but he was a carriage blacksmith. There was an Elizabeth A. Osborne at 7 years old in the 1860 census. An Ernestine A. Osborne with no occupation listed appears in the 1930 census.

Danbury directories on Ancestry revealed no photographers by the last name Osborne, but the first year for which they were available was 1918. In searching the census on Ancestry, I noted that many people in Danbury were employed in the hat manufacturing business around the turn of the 20th century. Similar searches on Footnote and FamilySearch turned up no new angles.

Last weekend, I dropped by a new antique store here in Easton and was drawn to a much loved old photo album. What was once apparently a velvety cover has worn down to bare fabric. I was ecstatic to see that it was filled to the gills with old photos of various types. The price was right too, for such a treasure, and I snapped it up.

The proprietor of the shop knew which family had possessed the album before it made it to the store. As you can see from the cover, however, it’s not a family album (at least not their family) — it’s supposedly filled with their friends.

One of the spreads in the photo album. Most of the photos are cabinet cards, but there is a smattering of other types of images.

After a preliminary examination of the photos, many have information written on the backs or margins. Most of the photos appear to be from one family from New York. I’m going to go through the photos and the information they contain to see if I can track down the descendants of that family.